Mr. James > Recent Status Updates

"This tea, in fact, seemed as precious a thing to Swann as it did to her, and love has such need to find for itself a justification, a guarantee that it will last, in pleasures which in fact would not be pleasures without it and which end when it ends..." ― Marcel Proust

“If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.”
― William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

"Reaching up, he snatched off his chief’s headdress and threw it violently onto the ground. Before Omri could stop him, he began jumping on it, and in a second or two all the beautiful tall turkey feathers were bent and broken."
― Lynne Reid Banks

"Are you going to tell me I hurt the corporation? I don't think even you are capable of such a lie. After a corporation gets to a certain size, nothing can hurt it. It gets to be an act of God. When things are good it makes a huge profit, and when things are bad it makes a profit, and when things go to hell it takes a tax deduction. Now you know that." -- SK

Virtually overnight, the tiny town of Plainfield -- formally so obscure that even most wisconsinites were unaware of its existence -- gained nationwide notoriety. Newspaper reporters, television and radio crews, and correspondence for national news magazines invaded the streets seeking out interviews with anyone who had information about the man the press had already dubbed the "Mad Butcher of Plainfield." -- HS

After the discovery of Bernice Worden's corpse in Gein's summer kitchen, police began scouring the rest of the house, looking for evidence related to that single grotesque crime. They could have never imagined that their search would quickly turn into a nightmare excavation. An archeological dig in hell. -- HS

Eddie: If I want it bad enough... If I will it... I can bring you back, Mother. I know I can! And Now, A Moment From Our Sponsor: My Wash Days are Holidays! PUSH BUTTON TECHNOLOGY! ... Dad knows! It's the brand for MILDNESS and FLAVOR! Merry Christmas for every smoker. ... Ten hours to DIE on a MEAT HOOK! And Now Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming!

GEORGE (father): Keep your cruel God, Augusta. If he looks kindly on a hateful thing like you... and orphans me... leaves me in misery all my days... I'd rather... die... a heathen. [Goult Funeral Home. Tuesday, April 2, 1940.] AUGUSTA (mother): Died on April Fools' Day. Fitting.

The isolated Plainfield farm was not, as Augusta hoped, a sanctuary from the sins of man. It instead was a self-imposed prison manufactured from their flawed union. An incubator for madness. -- HS

We won't allow you to cheat yourself! You must see PSYCHO from beginning to end to enjoy it fully. Therefore, do not expect to be admitted into the theater after the start of each performance of the picture. We say no one -- and we mean no one -- not even the manager's brother, the President of the United States, or the Queen of England (God bless her)! -- Alfred Hitchcock

Psycho was also the first time a flushing toilet had ever been seen on screen. -- HS

You can't apply mortality to insane persons. -- HS

Now and then, on one side or the other, stone stairs, with puddles on the steps, which gave me a strange sensation of fear, would descend into misty abysses, whence issued whistles, the rattle of dishes, the clatter of typewriters, the ring of hammers, and many other sounds, as if, down there, were exposition halls of some kind or other, already closing or not yet completed. -- VN

I lost my way for a moment among some enormous marble legs, and twice ran around a giant knee before I again caught sight of M. Godard, who was looking for me behind the white ankle of a neighboring giantess. Here a person in a bowler, who must have clambered up her, suddenly fell from a great height to the stone floor. -- VM

He turned out to be a thin, middle-aged gentleman in high collar and dickey, with a pearl in the knot of his tie, and a face very much resembling a Russian wolfhound; as if that were not enough, he was licking his chops in a most doglike manner, while sticking a stamp on an envelope... -- VN

"The treasures of the museum are the pride of the city," replied the old man, "and pride is not for sale." -- VN

Everything was as it should be: gray tints, the sleep of substance, matter dematerialized. -- VN

A Terrible Vengeance: After a soft kiss on the cheek, she'll slit her father's throat. Even the Devil deserves a daughter's love.

"Why doesn't my father come? Doesn't he know it is time he was stabbed to death? I suppose he expects me to go for him..." -- NG

Art heals imperfection, like a cowboy who carries a rusty revolver and cries at the sight of a hungry horse.

Smothered in the green foliage, they [the woods], and the wild flowers, too, crowd together along the margin of the flowering waters and, bending over, gaze into them, never for a moment tiring of the pastime, never for a moment averting their admiring, radiant glances from the stream, and they smile at it and greet it, waving their branches. But they dare not look into the Dnieper midstream [...]. -- NG

dork (dôrk) n. 1. an odd, socially awkward, unstylish person. 2. Slang: A stupid, inept, or foolish person. 3. Vulgar Slang: Male genitalia. 4. A used car salesman that thinks he's Tony Soprano. 5. Stephen King. 6. A high school librarian that wears a top hat.

"Daughter, for Christ's sake spare one glance at your guilty father. Why, even the savage wolf cubs will never tear their mother to pieces!" She paid no attention to him and walked on. "Daughter, for the sake of your unhappy mother..." She stopped. "For the sake of your unhappy mother come here and listen to my last words." -- NG

And it is no wonder you did not see everything that was in your dream. You don't know a tenth part of what your soul knows. Do you know that your father is the Antichrist? -- NG

I'll give Omri credit for showing restraint. If Little Bro started stabbing me while he was in my pocket, I'd do more than swear at him. He'd be a jelly sandwich, spread between the sidewalk and the sole of my boot. Little Bear is a little shit.

Oh, such a queer dream, and it was plain as though it were really happening. I dreamt that my father was the very same monster whom we saw at the Captain's house. But please don't pay any attention to this dream. People dream all sorts of silly things! I dreamed that I was standing before him, shivering and frightened, my whole body tortured by every word he spoke. Oh, if only you had heard what he said... -- NG

Omri is taking Little Bear to school in his pocket. WTF? Being a retired adolescent boy, the worst place to keep anything is your pocket. All it takes is for Omri to graze the school bus headrest and LB will be bloody gut squash, or at least, have a dozen broken bones. Regardless, if Little Bro were in my pocket, he'd end up in the washing machine.

Oh the irony: Imagine Stephen King telling Richard Bachman to murder a room full of corporate executives because he didn't want to get his hands dirty.

You bring to life a three inch plastic indian, causing all kinds of shit to go sideways. Naturally, the next logical step is to bring to life a three inch cowboy. The deductive reasoning of adolescent boys is uncanny... meaning stupid.

Well, Omri is a murderer. Yay! He's feeling the consequences of being a god. He's also learning that Little Bear is a little tyrant: he wants what he wants when he wants it.

That reminded him -- where was the horse? He looked around in a fright. But he soon saw it, trying forlornly to eat the carpet. "I must get it some grass," thought Omri, meanwhile offering it a small piece of stale bread, which it ate gratefully, and then some water in a tin lid. It was odd how the horse was not frightened of him. Perhaps it couldn't see him very well. -- LRB